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Assignment 8: Still Live (Levoy)
| Assignment Day | March 29, 2011 (Thursday) There will be one-two assignments a week from now on. |
| Due Date | April 12 - 5-10 photos posted to our group. |
Motivation:
Until now most of your photos have been a kind of found art. The photograph captures something beautiful already existing in the world. This is not to say there's no creativity involved. Your interpretation of the scene, as expressed by your composition and your creative control over the camera, has been what makes the captured scene "art".
This week we'll extend your creative control beyond the camera to the scene itself. In still life photography, you arrange the scene, choose the background, and can alter the lighting however you want. You should take time with each shot to make it just how you like it. There are plenty of second chances to get the shot right with still life photography.
Requirements
There are five requirements for this assignment, which you should meet by taking 5-10 photographs. This week, you will photograph objects that you have arranged and lit yourself. Additionally, this week you should use your comments to justify your choice of background, arrangement of the objects in the scene, and your choice of lighting, in addition to justifying your choice of camera settings (such as focus, shutter speed, and aperture).
General Requirements
These two requirements apply to every photo you take this week.
- Requirement 1: Background
For every photo this week, you should carefully pick your background and must describe and justify your choice in the comments below each photo. Consider light, dark, and textured backgrounds. You can make nice backgrounds using materials like clothes, sheets, cardboard, tablecloths, etc. You must use more than one background in your assignment. - Requirement 2: Lighting
For every photo this week, you should carefully arrange your lighting and must describe and justify your choices in the comments below each photo. Find some desk lamps to use, and/or arrange your scene in relation to an open window to control the lighting direction. Consider front lighting, side lighting, and even lighting your scene predominately from behind. You must use more than one lighting condition for your assignment.
Specific Requirements
These three requirements and these can be satisfied with a single photograph each. You'll need to take multiple photographs for at least one of them, in order to reach the five photograph minimum.
- Requirement 3: Caustics
A caustic is a bright shape created by the focusing of light through an imperfect lens or other curved transparent object. For example, the pattern of light on a tablecloth made by light passing through a wine glass is a caustic. At least one of your photos should include a caustic. It is also possible to create caustics from curved mirrored surfaces. Hint: One of the easiest ways to get a nice caustic is to take a side-lit photograph of a glass vase or drinking glass. - Requirement 4: A Themed Collection
Photograph a collection of objects that fit into one of the following categories (choose one category only): Mortality, vanity, ambition, or renewal. As this photograph requires multiple objects, you should also think about interreflections between objects. - Requirement 5: Portrait of an Object
Finally, photograph a single object with some sentimental value to you. Clean it up in Photoshop using the skills you learned in section to make it look really nice.
Example Solution
Here is an example solution from the Stanford class to this assignment to both let you know what we expect, and hopefully also inspire you to take better photos.Grading
As usual, we will assign grades based on whether you met the requirements of the assignment. For each requirement, you'll be given a check for meeting the requirement, check-minus for not quite meeting the requirement, or check-plus if you do something spectacular that makes your grader's jaw drop.
Upload your photos and add comments.
Upload your photos to your flickr account you create a set titled "Still Life". Add comments below each photo explaining how you arranged the scene, how you took the photo, what relevant camera settings you used and why, any image processing done to the photograph afterwards, and most importantly, which requirement the photo covers (all of your photographs should satisfy requirements 1 and 2).
Post 3 photos to the group one each for requitements 3-5).
Comment on other's photos.
As a courtesy please leave comments for 3-5 people in the class.